News & Stories

The Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion in Oregon may have rolled out over a year ago, but that doesn’t mean our efforts to get people enrolled and help them stay enrolled in health insurance have slowed down. Every day community members call or walk [ ]

The Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion in Oregon may have rolled out over a year ago, but that doesn’t mean our efforts to get people enrolled and help them stay enrolled in health insurance have slowed down. Every day community members call or walk through our doors looking for assistance with health insurance. The stories they share with us about what health insurance means to them inspire us and keep us going! We can’t capture all the stories, but thanks to a generous board member - Dawn Jones Redstone, owner of Hearts+Sparks Productions - we are able to share one special story. Click below to watch!

Several media outlets recently covered our Cuts & Checks program and partnership with Champions Barbershop. The Cuts & Checks program advances health equity and improves the heart health of African American men by engaging barbers as advocate for community [ ]

Several media outlets recently covered our Cuts & Checks program and partnership with Champions Barbershop. The Cuts & Checks program advances health equity and improves the heart health of African American men by engaging barbers as advocate for community health, improving blood pressure control among African American men and connecting them with health care services.

Thank you to OPB and KGW for telling the story of this great partnership!

Listen to OPB’s story about our Cuts & Checks program launch at Champions Barbershop on April 4.

Click on the picture below to read more about the program launch on OPB’s website.

Click on the picture below to watch KGW’s coverage of the great work of Jamaal Lane, Champions Barbershop owner, and North by Northeast.

On April 4 we officially launched our Cuts & Checks program with a kickoff celebration at Champions Barbershop!

Our Cuts & Checks barbershop program advances health equity and improves the cardiovascular health of African American men in Portland by:• Improving blood pressure control among African American men
• Engaging African American men in health care services
• Engaging barbers as advocates for community health

Barbershops that participate in the program sign on by taking the “Cuts and Checks pledge” to be “heart attack- and stroke-free zones.” Sharetta Butcher, NxNE’s Community Care Manager, and several patient ambassadors visit each shop on a monthly basis to offer blood pressure screenings and health information and to connect barbershop clients with health insurance enrollment and primary care services at NxNE. We provide our partner barbershops with an automatic blood pressure machine and training and materials in health promotion, cardiovascular health, health myths and hypertension. And we offer incentives to anyone getting their BP checked, including being entered in a raffle for a free haircut!

In addition to promoting the importance of having blood pressure at goal and the prevalence of heart disease among African American men, the Cuts & Checks program provides us with a way to connect with individuals in our community who could benefit from our primary care services.

Thank you to OPB for recognizing this important partnership and covering the event. You can listen to the radio story and read more about the program on OPB’s website.

Thanks to everyone who turned out, and especially to all the barbers for being part of this program and Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center for their support. We love this partnership! And thanks to our talented and wonderful board member Dawn Jones Redstone, who took many of these photos!

In addition to generous year-end gifts from individuals and families, we received several grants that are enabling us to expand capacity and launch new programs.

- A $47,000 capacity-building grant from Metro’s North Portland Enhancement Fund will allow us [ ]

In addition to generous year-end gifts from individuals and families, we received several grants that are enabling us to expand capacity and launch new programs.

- A $47,000 capacity-building grant from Metro’s North Portland Enhancement Fund will allow us to serve more of our North Portland neighbors by hiring operational and development staff.

- As part of their Community Health Improvement Plan, Health Share of Oregon awarded us a grant of $119,000 to address health disparities by further developing our Community Health Worker and group education programs.

- Kaiser Permanente awarded us a grant of $7,500 in support of an all-day clinic staffed by Kaiser employees at North by Northeast on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

- We received $25,000 from Legacy Emanuel Medical Center to launch the first year of our Cuts & Checks program. Through Cuts and Checks we engage barbers as advocates for community health and spread the word to black men about the importance of blood pressure control. (Pictured above: Pamela Weatherspoon, Legacy Health Community Relations, with NxNE Community Care Manager Sharetta Butcher.)

In the past six months we’ve welcomed five new members to our Board of Directors. Each brings a unique set of skills, experience and perspective; they all bring a passion for health equity and a love of North by Northeast.

In the past six months we’ve welcomed five new members to our Board of Directors. Each brings a unique set of skills, experience and perspective; they all bring a passion for health equity and a love of North by Northeast.

(Pictured left to right)Avel Gordly: Avel served three terms as a state representative in the Oregon Legislature before her election, as the first African American woman, to the Oregon Senate in 1996. She is an organizer and activist as well as a beloved teacher and mentor. Avel was one of the original members of our Advocate Board and served in that role from 2006-2014.

Denise Johnson (not pictured): Our newest board member, Denise has 14 years of experience working collaboratively with diverse communities to improve population and individual health. She currently serves as the Health Promotion Coordinator at CareOregon.

Charlene McGee: Charlene is a Liberian-Oregonian grassroots activist and public health enthusiast. She served for many years on our Advocate Board and currently works for the Multnomah County Health Department as the Refugee Health Coordinator.

Jessica Lee: A former NxNE staff member and active volunteer, Jessica is the Leadership Development Manager for the Coalition of Communities of Color.

James Schroeder: James has helped start over a dozen health clinics and was a crucial adviser as we made our transition to a new model of care serving those covered by the Oregon Health Plan. As a Physician Assistant, James volunteers once a month seeing our patients. When he’s not volunteering and spending time with his family, he’s traveling the country as Kaiser Permanente’s Executive Director of Medicaid.

In February our Board and staff members gathered for a day-long retreat to talk about how North by Northeast has responded to health care reform, our vision for the future, and how we are going to achieve that vision. You’ll be hearing more later this year as our Board kicks off a campaign to celebrate our tenth anniversary in 2016!